Contract farming: A prospect yet to be unveiled

I met Farid in Qatar's Alkhor region in 2011. Farid, who comes from Chattogram, went to Qatar as a labourer in 2001 and like other expatriate staff, he was functioning there day and night. He worked for many years at his Qatari Sheikh's organization. One day he saw a bit of a fallow terrain near his office and started pondering what crops can be cultivated there. His colleagues laughed at him and stated, "Hey, will there be any crop on this land where the soil is filled with sand, stones, rocks and gravels." But Farid was adament in his decision and started out farming by taking lease of the terrain from the owner of the business at a nominal cost. He previously believe that he'd find soil beneath the rocks and sand. He placed digging the soil with a spade but found a whole lot of slate stones under the soil. It was difficult to eliminate those from the bottom and the job could have been easier if he previously a tiller.

He made a good tiller or plough want object with a bit of metal. The difficulty was, who would draw that as there have been no bulls, but horses and donkeys. Horses cost a lot. In the end, Farid bought a donkey and taken away the stones and finally started farming. It had been like turning unattainable to possible. By the time I visited Farid's farm, it had been already three-year-old. It was sheer effort, I let you know my dear readers.  

With hard work, concentration and dedication Bangladeshi personnel like Farid are making amazing success stories in various countries of the globe. Farid continued to improve the quantity of leased terrain in the next years. He created occupations for Bangladeshis personnel, started commercial farming completely swing and became a business owner in Qatar. In 2014, I visited Farid's farm once again which literally switched huge. Crimson spinach, spinach, tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, and radish: there were so many fruit and vegetables there. Twenty five teenagers were doing work at his farm and pursuing his footsteps Alkhor region has a great many other farms nowadays. Farid was stressing on an issue that Qatar imposed strict restrictions over Bangladeshi expatriates. Therefore, Bangladeshi workers were reducing at the farm and vacant posts are becoming occupied by staff from India, Pakistan, Nepal and additional countries. After studying the problem, I took the in that case Bangladeshi Ambassador in Qatar, Ashud Ahmed to Farid's farm. He stated he would discuss the problem at the higher level.

Not just Farid, I have seen Abdur Razzak from Pirojpur's Mathbaria, who started one of the largest agricultural farms in Al Faisal, in Kuwait's Wafra place. In Oman, Mustafiz has set up a professional farm on around 70 acres of area. Sohel has create a seafood farm at Chicabo village in Luwero district of Uganda, Africa. For 15 to twenty years, Bangladeshi entrepreneurs in several parts of the universe, including Malaysia, the Middle East and Africa, possess occupied a distinctive position. However, the federal government has hardly thought that it is possible to hire the skilled agro-workers in the farming sector in abroad.

The whole world is going through a hard time due to the spread of coronavirus pandemic. United Nation's Globe Health Organization, Foodstuff and Agriculture Organization, contain repeatedly warned of food shortages. By the infinite mercy of the almighty, we have handled the problem using our abilities in Bangladesh. As the pandemic approached quite viciously in every part of the environment, Bangladeshi expatriate employees were told to return residence and forced to give up their jobs. They truly became unemployed. Relating to this when Covid-19 was at the peak during March-April, 2020, I talked to your Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and asked him to check out the subject. The honourable minister had taken the proposal extremely seriously. I as well spoke with Ambassador Golam Masih in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He said farming in Saudi Arabia is very expensive and their government is wanting to build farms in the African nation of Sudan, as farming is much cheaper there.

The annals of our relationship with Africa is pretty old. Ibn Battuta writes in his publication that possibly in the 14th century, he fulfilled traders from West Arab plus some African countries. The biggest issue is usually that after independence, the countries of Africa accepted Bangladesh as a sovereign and independent nation. We know that Daddy of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman built efforts to reinforce political and organization relations with Africa. Because of three years of dedicated assistance as a peacekeeper of the US in various war-torn countries in Africa, Bangladesh's military, navy, oxygen force, police and NGOs possess strengthened relations with unique African countries, who've a positive attitude towards Bangladesh. The war-torn countries in Africa invited numerous countries incorporating Bangladesh to create agricultural products on the great, unused and agriculturally fertile lands. Responding to the invitations, neighbouring India and different countries have started farming taking a 99-yr lease. But also for some unknown motive, no one has taken any initiative from our federal government or personal sector to capture the lease. Even though some Bangladeshi private initiatives have started in a couple of African countries.

On January 20, an online seminar on 'Contract Farming and Job Chance of Bangladesh Abroad' was organized at the Foreign Services Academy in Dhaka. There is an opportunity to pay attention to others as well as share my opinions. Retired Ambassador Golam Masih provided a paper on deal farming abroad, especially in Africa. He was Bangladesh's Ambassador in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh Representative to OIC in Sudan. He gave an outstanding presentation on the possibilities of contract farming in African countries. "If we are able to manage farming in Africa, it'll play a vital role inside our food security and also ensure employment opportunities for Bangladeshis," he explained. He likewise discussed the problem of meeting the demand for cotton in our textile sector by cultivating cotton in Sudan. His proposals appeared quite realistic. We have to have taken this initiative 15 years back. Indo-Pakistani traders possess a monopoly on agricultural farms in Africa. They will be top rated agricultural commerce and trade sector in many African countries. I remember, I visited see the Maire Estate, an Indian-built farm, leaded by Khan Mohammad Huda at a location referred to as Kuwenda in Uganda in 2014. His forefathers began cultivating flowers and vegetables there in 1956 for the European market. Till date, Huda has been cultivating flowers and vegetables.

Even soon after 50 years of independence, we can not think of the international idea of agribusiness. In this competitive universe, if we can not make the right decision regarding worldwide agri-business and labour industry, we could keep on falling behind. At the seminar placed at the Foreign Provider Academy, individuals were saying that it was too late to produce a decision. Though it is late, nonetheless it is required to take part in this competition in which to stay the race. So that we usually do not fall even more behind. To guarantee the powerful participation of skilled employees and agri-business owners in the farming sectors abroad, the necessary cooperation from the government and most suitable policy-decisions should be taken at the earliest opportunity. I do consider agriculture can provide us economic liberty, the real freedom whether at home or abroad.